Zogby Surprise Poll: Jews Will Vote for Obama Despite Israel Stance

Despite the uproar over President Barack Obama’s support for Palestinian demands that Israel return to its 1967 borders, pollster John Zogby predicts that Obama won’t suffer significant defections from Jewish voters at the polls in 2012.

In an exclusive Newsmax.TV interview, Zogby noted that Democrats traditionally enjoy a 75 percent to 25 percent advantage in the Jewish vote. The lone exception was Ronald Reagan’s re-election bid in 1984.

It will take more than a little friction with the current leadership of Israel to change that dynamic, he says. “Israel is extremely important to American Jews. But so are traditional liberal stances, particularly on social issues.”

Story continues below video.

Zogby predicts that the rightward shift of GOP candidates during their primary battles for the nomination will limit their appeal to Jewish Americans in the general election.

“I think [the Israel issue] will be raised by Republican candidates, but I think the lines are drawn fairly well, and I think it’s hard for it to not be a 75 to 25 split for Obama and the Democrats,” he says.

Zogby also predicts that the primary impact of Obama’s Middle East speech will be to generate “a bit more enthusiasm among liberal voters,” especially Muslim-Americans.

Zogby notes that Muslim-American sympathies shifted markedly during the presidency of George W. Bush. They broke 10-to-1 for the Democratic candidate, Sen. John Kerry. The Iraq war and the Patriot Act offended Muslim voters, according to Zogby. An estimated 2-3 million Muslims reside in the United States.

14 COMMENTS

As for the settlement building prior to FINAL negotiations, Obama simply has always stated Bush’s position: quote from Condoleeza Rice on tour with Bush:
Jerusalem Post January 8, 2009:
On the eve of US President George W. Bush’s visit to Israel and the region, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice placed the issue of settlement activity in the West Bank and east Jerusalem at center stage, telling The Jerusalem Post that quote, “Har Homa is a settlement the United States has opposed from the very beginning”…
Rice, who was accompanying Bush en route to Israel overnight Tuesday, said that “the United States doesn’t make a distinction” between settlement activity in east Jerusalem and the West Bank and that Israel’s road map obligations, which include a building freeze, relate to “settlement activity generally.”
Rice’s comments underlined that the settlement issue will be high on the agenda of the talks between Bush and Prime Rice, with her comments, went further than US officials have previously gone toward clarifying the US position on east Jerusalem…..
….Nevertheless, senior diplomatic officials said that they did not see much new in Rice’s position, and that the US has consistently opposed all construction beyond the Green Line, including inside Jerusalem….

[Regarding Bush’s 2004 letter written in response to the Ariel Sharon Disengagement from Gaza…]…”Rice described the letter as “the president’s acknowledgement that these changes have taken place and have to be accommodated. This president also said it needs to be mutually agreed [upon]. So the negotiation, the agreement itself, will finally resolve these issues, and we can stop having the discussion about what’s a settlement and what isn’t.”

why wouldnt they?
Jews voted for Bush too. He endorsed the “roadmap” which stated “The settlement will resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and end the occupation that began in 1967, based on the foundations of the Madrid Conference, the principle of land for peace, UNSCRs 242, 338 and 1397, agreements previously reached by the parties, and the initiative of Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah  endorsed by the Beirut Arab League Summit…” That is a direct quote.
Obama didnt say anything new.

This is baloney. What do you expect the Arab-American Pollster Zogby to say? There is no way in hell that I as a an American-Jew will vote for Obama who is clearly Anti-Israel and wants Israel to surrender to Arab terrorism

I think many jews are not really sure what to make of obamas comments when this liberal leaning poll comes out the jews will think ok it wasn’t that bad if most jews will still vote for obama so on to the next issue.Its a way that zogby’s can sway votes and play with your brain all polls do that they make you think what the polsters want you to think

Foolish attackers of Liberal Dreams and Wisdom, Mr. Obama is not the enemy of our people. He is a liberal minded soul who serves the future in the way that he is guided by the powers of liberalism in the modern day. Do not spite him for his choices and do not smite his aptitude. He has shown his professionalism and his decency time and time again. If my fellow Jews choose Mr. Obama for his next term in office, be it the choice of our Trust and Worth. Do not bash the professional leanings of a voting public.